Posen Foundation: Back in the Funding Game

The Posen Foundation is recovering after being burned by Bernie Madoff, and this week will grant $315,000 in stipends to Israeli researchers in the area of nonreligious Jewish culture. Seven researchers were chosen out of 60 who applied, and each will receive $45,000 over the next three years. … British millionaire Felix Posen, 81, a former partner of Marc Rich, founded the fund, which promotes the concept of secular Jewish culture all over the world, and his son Daniel runs it.

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Non-religious Jewish culture exists and thrives in Israel and everywhere. Jewishness is a nationality as well as a religion. Here are some examples of non-religious Jewish culture in Israel: eating dinner with your family on Friday evenings, wearing white for Yom Hashoah, knowing the ins and outs of Israel’s landscape by taking “tiyulim”, knowing Jewish poetry, literature and art, studying the Bible as a cultural artifact, not a religious one, and I could go on. Have you been to Kallabat Shabbat? (No, it’s not a typo)

Rob, come down to the Tel Aviv port on a Friday evening and see a secular kabbalat Shabbat with hundreds of people singing songs they love and watching the sun set before heading off for dinner with their families or fun on the town. The problem with religious Judaism is that it’s lost the sense of oneg shabbat, and being happy in your holidays. All it knows how to do in Israel is tell you how to punish and restrict. Secular Judaism is alive and well in Israel. It’s just that the religious Jews can’t get their heads around it.

Rochelle – You’re absolutely right when it comes to Israel. That’s because in Israel, it’s impossible to escape being Jewish, so Judaism takes on different forms because religion is viewed as oppressive. That’s fine.

In the U.S. however, where there is competition for Jewish hearts and minds, along with beautiful, sweet, non-nagging gentile women, we are losing the battle big time. That’s because secular Jewish culture can’t answer the question “Why should I be Jewish, different, separate, from my fellow Americans?” Sally is as sweet and good and giving as any Jewish woman, so why on earth should I not marry her?! Outside a religious context, it is almost racism to oppose intermarriage.

Secular Judaism works in Israel for sociological reasons. Here in the U.S., we need something more compelling.

Secular Jewish culture is alive and well in the United States, too, albeit in somewhat different ways than in Israel, and within a somewhat different context than in religious contexts. Much of it is less organized into traditional streams, and much of it is well-integrated into the broader culture, including community institutions and university programs. Perhaps those strengths are also weaknesses in some ways, since it is difficult to gauge the “success” of a social movement that cannot be measured only by institutional affiliation. Rob’s point about intermarriage isn’t really fairly directed at secular/humanistic/cultural Jewish life, since there is quite a lot of intermarriage in Reform and Conservative Judaism as well. Perhaps all of the liberal theological movements and humanistic Jews can be strengthened by the work of the Posen Foundation, which is supporting scholars and teachers who are working to clarify concepts and promote understanding of the culture that has long characterized much of Jewish life.

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